“Yeah,” Alvarez says, “that nurse’s voice carried.A fair amount of people heard it.”
Daphne spears him with narrowed eyes.“You knew, Colby, and didn’t tell me?”
Alvarez holds up his hands in a defensive manner as he skates backward away from us.“Hey, not my news to tell!”
Coach claps me on the shoulder.“Welcome to the club!There’s something in the water around here.We’re falling in love like dominoes.”
Phoebe and I are having a silent conversation with our eyes.We’ve been in tune like this since we first met a couple of years ago.
What do you want to do?hers ask.
I have no idea, mine respond.
Her eyes widen.Should we roll with it and figure it out later?
I lift a brow and a corner of my mouth.Okay.
And with that, we’re engaged.She may have dated my team trainer, but at least I’m the first one she got engaged to.I think my plan to woo her like I would gentle a skittish mare just got kicked into a gallop.I hope I can stay in the saddle.
16
PHOEBE
There’s no bended knee,no words of love, no ring.Instead, it’s a cold rink, a bunch of sweaty hockey players, and what I hope is a mutual understanding we’re going to let people think we’re getting married.Not how I thought I’d end up engaged.But it’s Ollie, so I’ll take what I can get.
Daphne hugs me again.“I know Shelby doesn’t know yet—she would have told me when we spoke this morning—but it’s starting to show up online.We can post it on the team social media.Send me a cute couple picture of you.”
My head is spinning.Ollie is standing there, stunned.He opens his mouth to say something and then closes it.I guess this is on me.
“Hey, guys, what’s up?”Mallory’s rounding the corner to join us.
“Phoebe and Ollie are engaged!”Daphne shouts.Considering we’re all in a five-foot radius, the shouting was not necessary.
“OMG, congratulations!”Mallory gives me a hug.“When did you get engaged?”She turns to Ollie.“Were you engaged when you went onBigfoot Finds a Bride?Is that why you wouldn’t kiss the bachelorette?”
Crap.We hadn’t worked out our story.
“Go ahead, honey, tell them,” I say with a smile.
“Are you sure you don’t want to, sweetie?”Ollie replies with a tight smile in return.“You tell it so much better than I do.”His helmet is off, so it’s easy to see his brown eyes pleading with me to get us out of this mess.
I clear my throat and take a sip of the bottled water I grabbed on the way from the training room.My hand is trembling as I put the bottle down on the ledge in front of me.Ollie notices and grabs my hand, lacing our fingers together and resting them on his thigh.He must take pity on me because he leans forward to answer Mallory, who’s now seated next to Coach.
“We weren’t engaged when I went on the show.If we were, I wouldn’t have gone.”
“Were you dating?”Mallory asks, and Ollie shakes his head.
“No.It’s crazy,” I say.“We met at our siblings’ wedding a couple of years ago.I was attending school in Paris, so it was a quick trip back here.I thought Ollie was so cute, but I was seeing someone casually, and he was going back west to finish his degree, so nothing happened.”
His hand holding mine is warm as I give it a gentle squeeze.
“You thought I was cute?”he asks with an adorable boyish grin and a flush that makes the tips of his ears turn red.
I grin back.“Yes.You were.I love it when you wear your glasses.Gives you a Clark Kent vibe.You didn’t have your beard yet, so you still had a boyish look.You were adorable.”
“So, you met at the wedding and then went your separate ways,” Mallory says.“When did you see each other again?”
“Last summer.”I smile up at Ollie, happy to be telling the truth.“I moved back here after my time in culinary school in Paris.Ollie had graduated with his degree in computer engineering and came out here to visit with his family, so we hung out.”
